THE Gold Coast Football Club will enter the AFL in exactly one year's time. Coach Guy McKenna talks about the current AFL landscape and challenges ahead
Article and image courtesy of the Gold Coast Bulletin

Q: IN 12 months, the club will be running out for Round 1 of the 2011 AFL season. Is it a thought that keeps you awake at night?

A: I probably already had that feeling last year. The reality is the likes of Charlie Dixon and Todd Grayson are the players we already have. Then we have another bunch of 17-year-olds and rookies that have joined us. They are all about 18 or 19 and they have the potential if they want it bad enough to be playing senior football in 2011.

Q: How important has it been for you and the club to have two years to prepare for the AFL debut?

A: The rationale of the AFL with the rules and regulations of how we are going to evolve into an AFL club has been fantastic. The two years lead-in time before entering the AFL has also been fantastic. I'm sure in the history of some of the other clubs that have joined and had six or seven months to get it right before they are in, it would have impacted their decision making. We have had two years to do that. It is all about the now but you also have to look 50 yards ahead as well.

Q: Knowing your opposition is such a key part of today's AFL coaching scene. How soon do you start analysing the other 16 AFL clubs, or has it already started?

A: It has started. We have three coaches and in the budget we don't have room for an opposition coach per se. Ken Hinkley has done opposition, I have done opposition and Shaun Hart has never done opposition in his life because he won three flags in a row so he is worried about himself (laughs). We have new AFL coaches in place with Brad Scott (North Melbourne) and Damien Hardwick (Richmond), who are going to potentially change the way those sides have been playing. We have Nathan Buckley evolving under Mick Malthouse so Collingwood might face a change as well and we need to be abreast of that and aware of it. We are not going to be caught asleep going into the AFL.

Q: Which club deserves to be the AFL premiership favourite?

A: You would have to say Geelong. They won it last year and and as we found out in 1992 (with West Coast), the only thing that is going to stop you winning it back-to-back is your mental application. There is a physical component as players get a bit older and that's when other teams might catch them. But you would still think Geelong have their nose ahead of St Kilda.

Q: Do you think a fit and firing Barry Hall will deliver the Western Bulldogs a premiership this year?

Your Say
"we would love our 9 month old triplets to be a part of your team "
maksimovic

A: He already has in the NAB Cup (laughs). From a coach looking at the Bulldogs, they are very solid in a lot of areas. They now have a legitimate target up front. Yes, they still have to do deliver the ball by foot and find their targets. And the likes of Shaun Higgins and Jason Akermanis are still going to kick running goals. But they now have that legitimate bailout option going deep. And as he showed against St Kilda, one of the best defensive sides going around, he can still kick goals.

Q: Brendan Fevola has been a big story over the off-season. Would you have recruited him with all his baggage?

A: If a player does have some baggage, you have to sit down and ask yourself: `Has the player failed the system or has the system failed the player?' And if there are issues still there, do you have the resources to manage it? Personally speaking, it is a young playing group here, the staff are young and we don't have seven or eight coaches. From the club's point of view and my point of view, we are short in some of those areas so he wasn't considered.

Q: Have you been surprised at the level of media and public interest in the possible Gary Ablett Jr to Gold Coast issue?

A: No.

Q: Because he is the best player in the competition?

A: Yes. I am not being a smart arse, but only because when big names have been thrown around in AFL trade week, watch the newspapers go crazy. And trade week is only one week. It's like Chris Judd when he went through all that at West Coast. He kept putting off his contract and there were a lot of stories about it. I am not disappointed (about the Ablett talk) because I think everybody is big enough and ugly enough to handle it. The only thing I get annoyed about is the fact that some players' names are being thrown up in the media and it is just pure speculation.

Q: Is it because you are protective of your group that it annoys you?

A: I need to be protective of my players. You start throwing up names like Gary Ablett Jr and no-one in my position would knock him back, let's be honest. But what about my midfielders? Sure, most would love to play with him but there might be the seventh or eighth midfielder asking: ``If he's coming, where am I going?'' And if we target forwards, what are Charlie Dixon and Matt Fowler thinking? People need to understand the ramifications of putting a name in a newspaper. Sometimes it can be unfair.

Q: Fair enough, but from a coaching perspective can you really take that into account when you make recruiting decisions? After all, it is a ruthless business and you have to go for the best and ones that are going to help the club.

A: Oh, I would be derelict in my duties if I didn't go after the best available players. And I am sure the players on contract at the Gold Coast Football Club would want me going after the best available because it will only make them better.

Q: Everyone talks about all the money your club will have to spend on players and the extra $1 million in your salary cap. Is it as good as people make out?

A: Yeah, everyone talks about the pot of gold and the extra money in our salary cap. But we also have 10 extra players. In the AFL annual report, it said the average AFL wage is $222,000 a year. So multiply that by 10 and that's $2.2 million. We only have an extra million and that says we are playing 10 players potentially 50 per cent less of what they are entitled to. Don't be going out there thinking we can grab whoever we like. We have to be very clinical with these players.

Q: It is speculated that Gary Ablett Jr will earn $1.5 million if he comes to the Gold Coast. As a player who played in the 1990s, does the amount of money the top players attract these days stagger you?

A: No. It started to happen when I was coming through. It is just professional sport. Would you do it for the love? Of course you would but you wouldn't have them training as much because they would have to work. But they would still be playing footy. Playing on days like AFL grand final day and Anzac Day in front of 90,000 people .th.th. you wouldn't trade that for anything.

Q: You will be targeting eight to 10 uncontracted AFL players at the end of this season. Will you be looking for an even spread of different types of players?

A: We have to juggle the balls. Look at ruckman, we have Zac Smith, Rory Thompson, Tom Nicholls and Tim Pluimers. If they all smash it this VFL season then all of a sudden we have a lot of ruckmen. If you are a tall, uncontracted ruckman I don't like your chances of being signed on. I am only using that as a scenario but it is a work in progress.

Q: You have been at West Coast and then as an assistant coach at Collingwood. Both teams have a lot of supporters and members. You come here to a tough sporting market where you have to sell yourself and the club because it is starting from nothing. Has that been a tough adjustment?

A: At those previous clubs you turn up and almost expect a big crowd every time you play. We are starting from scratch and looking for people to sign up as members this season, so you do probably wear two or three hats. From coach to assistant coach to property man, we need to be selling the club. From a recruiting side of things, we need to make sure we can provide the best entertainment package. And that is with the best footballers playing the best style of football and being the best side going around. But it doesn't come out of thin air. We need members and sponsors.

GUY McKENNA will join the Bulletin as an AFL columnist starting from next Tuesday.